At-home and at school learning resources from Learning for a Sustainable Future
Week 1: Step Outside Early September Your Local Insect Symphony
Nothing says “end of summer, beginning of school” more than the buzzing drone of the cicada (which means buzzer in Latin), a large insect that spends most of its life busily sucking on plant roots. Learn more about these curious insects, other local creatures & local happenings around your neighbourhood through these interesting exploratory, hands on learning activities this week.

This week's activities are based off of our Early September Step Outside guide, so check out the rest of this guide to learn about even more local happenings including bird migration, animals storing food and preparing shelter and upcoming meteor showers you may just catch a glimpse of!
Grades K-2
This engaging outdoor activity features an exploratory approach that fosters a genuine connection to the natural world. Students use science skills to survey living organisms in a local green space and describe their findings with pictographs and drawings. The activities also strengthen math skills in counting, describing data and using simple graphs. Strengthened by excellent support materials like student worksheets, the learning experience provides an increased awareness of the value of microhabitats in supporting global biodiversity.


Activities
  • Watch A Tree is Nice to learn more about the parts of trees and why trees are important
  • Complete the activities in the teacher's guide
  • Use the Tree Tally sheet to count the trees in your schoolyard or local green space 
  • Complete the Who Uses This Tree sheet to identify, tally and graph wildlife found in the schoolyard or local green space 
  • Complete the Living Things Graph to represent each insect, spider or bird you found in the outdoor learning space
  • Play a simple card game based on the stages of metamorphosis to learn how insects change in form as they grow
  • Have students create pictures or posters illustrating why they think trees are important
  • This lesson could be an excellent introduction to a year-long science project where students raise their own seedlings to learn about tree growth. At the end of the year, they could plant the trees in the schoolyard or their backyard
What did you think of Nature Survey?
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A young boy and his grandfather set off for an overnight trip in a local camping area. They plan to look for cicadas during the night. The story text is supplemented with factual information about the insect that matches the focus of the fictional text on each page. The representation of nature in the book is incredibly beautiful and the cicada illustrations are scientifically accurate. This children's book serves as a companion to the Early September Nature Guide that connects back to school with the familiar sound of the cicada.


Activities
  • Watch Searching for Cicadas online
  • Search for cicadas and other insects in the schoolyard. See how many bugs you can find in your schoolyard
  • Get outside and complete the Get to Know Insects activity. Compare the different insects you find
  • Look for live cicadas or other insects – take photos, record their song, marking sightings on the map, upload sightings and recordings to a citizen science app such as Project Noah
  • Learn about and complete the life cycle of the cicada and make your own
  • Use this interactive tool to learn and label the cicada body parts
  • Research the main threats to cicadas or other insects. Discuss ways your class could help protect them
What did you think of Searching for Cicadas?
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Students take to the outdoors to survey the number of living things they encounter in a local natural area. Armed with extensive checklists, students will tally the number of each type of living thing they encounter during a whole day taxonomic event involving the identification of families and species. After the BioBlitz, students identify the invasive species and decide how to count them in the biodiversity tally. 


Activities
  • Use the checklists in the Bioblitz lesson plan to tally and identify the insects in your schoolyard or local community
  • Work in partners or small groups to conduct a biodiversity survey in two distinct areas and compare the results
  • Collect your data using a variety of collection methods, draw sketches, take photos or take notes
  • Use the information you have learned from your results to design a biodiversity scavenger hunt or Biodiversity Bingo for younger students at your school
  • Invite a naturalist or biologist to help with the survey or contact virtually to answer questions.
  • Complete the Invent your own insect activity
  • Share your bioblitz event with us on social media at #LearningInsideOut
What did you think of Close the Doors - Bioblitz?
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Grades 9-12
This outdoor activity serves as a companion to the Early September Nature Guide that connects 'back-to-school' with the familiar sounds of the Cicada. Students are provided with easy-to-implement instructions for the safe capture, observation and release of these unique insects. The activity allows students to witness first-hand many of the structural features and behaviours described in the nature guide.



Activities
  • Photograph cicadas or other insects in the local environment. Zoom in on the photos and identify the visible physical characteristics
  • Source images of different insects and cicadas. Compare and research the similarities and differences in physical characteristics
  • Discuss how the differences affect the way the insects live, move or defend themselves
  • A pattern of dry, hot weather across the Prairies over the past few years has resulted in a grasshopper infestation, with some experts saying the nuisance is negatively affecting every part of the agriculture industry. Research and discuss how climate change plays a role in this infestation
  • A group of cicadas is called a cloud or a plague. And while they aren't cannibalistic, some insect plagues are. Learn more by watching this video
  • Watch the video Bugs for Breakfast. What might be the effects (for example, on the environment or society) of moving from a beef-heavy diet to an insect-heavy diet? How could we raise insects to be an efficient and sustainable food source? What should we take into consideration?
What did you think of Cicada Hunters?
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About Learning Inside Out

Above you will find a selection of activities, broken down by various grade levels. These guides will be released weekly and archived on our Learning Inside Out page, so you can always access the full catalogue.

All activities have been modified from resources on our R4R database, simplified and adapted for both outdoor learning in the school yard or at-home as needed. The activity descriptions above should contain all the information and links that you need!

If you'd like to view the full original resource on R4R, including curriculum connections for every province/territory, click the activity title.

We want this guide to work for you, so your feedback is invaluable to us.
Use the feedback button at the bottom of this Guide, or email us at info@LSF-LST.ca. We would also love to see photos of students engaging in the activities, please e-mail us any pictures or videos you have!
Let us know how this helped your learning and teaching from home or at school indoors and (hopefully) outdoors and what you'd like to see more of by filling out our brief feedback form!
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Please share widely with any parents and teachers in your life!
Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a Canadian charity with over 25 years of experience working within the education system. Our Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database is an award-winning collection of resources that are peer-reviewed by certified teachers and connected to curriculum in all provinces and territories. R4R is recommended on many Ministry of Education websites.
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